Remus' Secret
by WolfGirl1636
Summary: What happened when the Marauders found out about Remus being a werewolf? This is my take on the event. Please, R&R!


Remus' Secret

Remus still couldn't believe it his luck. He was still a student at Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had three of the best friends of his life, and his biggest secret was still unknown. Granted, his three friends were highly suspicious about his Big Secret, but he had luckily been able to keep them in the dark by lying to them. Sure, he felt guilty about lying to them. But it was for the best for all involved. Or so he had been able to convince himself.

For, you see, Remus was a werewolf. He had been bitten at the age of eight and had been one ever since. He was almost certain that if anyone knew- even his friends- they would tell the whole school, or worse, their parents. Then he would be expelled for fear that he would bite a student. Not to mention his newly found friends would abandon him in the course of all this.

Remus shook himself mentally. `I shouldn't be thinking about all of this. It won't help anything and will only make me feel worse.`

Squaring his shoulders and drawing himself up to his full height, Remus continued to his destination-The 2nd Year Gryffindor Boy dorms.

~Meanwhile in the 2nd Year Gryffindor Boy Dorms~

"We have got to find out why Remus really leaves every month! It's driving me up the wall!"Exasperated, the black haired, glasses wearing youth flung himself onto his bed after his dramatic revelation.

Directly across from him, the other raven-haired youth of the group sat on the bed to the right of his friend in a more dignified and restrained way."I agree with you there, James. We have to find out so that we can help him. He seems so dejected when he comes back."

The third boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, who was sitting on the floor between the two beds, leaning on the nightstand, spoke up next."But how will we do that? Remus is like a vault with secrets. Especially that particular one! He wouldn't tell us to save his life."

Both of his companions nodded in silent, mutual agreement."Peter is right James. How will we get him to tell us? Every time we ask him, he either avoids the questions or gives us some cock and bull answer."

James looked at each of his companions with a look they had learned to appreciate as a warning that a plot was about to commence.

"Sirius, Peter, I am glad that you both appreciate the complexity of this problem. Yet, even in the face of this daunting task, your leader, James Potter, has come up with an ingenious plan to uncover Remus' Big Secret!"

Both of his companions looked unsurprised at his declaration. It was Sirius who voiced the question that James was waiting for. "And what would this 'ingenious plan' be that our 'leader' has come up with? We are waiting for its' with bated breath."

Peter rolled his eyes at his friends' egotistical and sarcastic personalities. Nevertheless, James' smile grew bigger at the question. "Why, Sirius! I was just waiting for you to ask!"

Something vaguely akin to "I bet you were" was heard from Sirius' direction, but was generally ignored.

"My fellow plotters, I propose we make a list of the things we have noticed about our dear friend Remus, make educated guesses using said list, corner him in the dorm where no one else will overhear us, and go through the proposed guesses in order, asking him which one it is. If it isn't any of them, he will be forced to tell us anyway because he won't want use thinking it is any of the guesses."

His two "fellow plotters" meditated on this proposal. Before Sirius spoke first.

"I think that might have some potential James. Only, how are we gonna make him tell us if all of our guesses are wrong?" That floored James.

For a while, the three sat in silence. Then, the least likely one had a revelation.

"I know! We can put a fake guess that's so bad that he won't want us to think that that is his problem!" Both Sirius and James looked at their smaller friend in surprise.

"Peter, that has to be the best idea you have ever come up with to date. You have surpassed our expectations, my friend." Sirius said, still slightly dumbfounded at his friends' sign of intelligence.

"I agree with Sirius on this one, Pete. I could have never seen that coming."James finally said after awhile, getting over his obvious surprise.

Peter rolled his eyes."Thanks for believing in me, mates. Makes me feel so good about myself! Now can we get started on our plan to uncover Remus' Big Secret?"The other two just grinned at him.

"Sure Petey, whatever the genius says go's, right James?"Sirius joked.

"Right you are Siri!" James played along. The two boys looked at each other and couldn't help but start to laugh. Peter began to get annoyed with their antics and, finally, couldn't take it anymore.

Standing up, Peter made himself heard over the twos' laughter. "GUYS! Can we just please get on with the bleedin' plan already?!" Surprised at the sudden outburst, both boys fell off their respective beds and onto the floor at Peters' feet.

"Blimey mate! Fine, we'll get on with our plan. Just keep your pants on will ya?" Sirius muttered darkly, destroying his mad look by rubbing his sore behind.

"Yeah, really. Didn't even know you had a temper before now." James said, taking a seat near his two friends and fishing parchment, quill, and ink from the nightstand behind a. now sitting, Peter.

Peter shrugged in response."I do. You just never brought it out 'till just a few moments ago."

Sirius chuckled."Remind me not to in the near future. Now, about that list…."

And that was how the three started on their list. Pretty soon they had enough "notices" to start making their guesses. Pretty soon, they had books out and were too deep into their research to hear the fourth member of their group coming up the stairs before it was too late.

Remus had finally gotten to his destination. Giving the Fat Lady the password (Gillyweed) he literally tripped through the portrait hole and down the steps.

'Note to self: When faced between Peeves and a detention for being out late, pick the detention.' Remus sighed.

"At least I can go up to the dorms, take a shower, and finish my 'Education of Little Tree' book." Comforted by that thought, Remus tiredly drug his protesting body upstairs.

"Damn Full Moon. Why's it gotta be this weekend? Why not next weekend when I don't have to study for both a Charms and a Trasnfig test?" He grumbled.

Suddenly, he heard voices coming from his dorm room. Curious, Remus quietly went to the door to listen in on his friends.

'I thought they were going to the kitchens to grab a snack? They shouldn't be back yet.' He thought.

Suddenly, he heard Sirius' voice make an announcement. Being as quiet as he could, Remus listened to his friend intently.

"Well, that has to be it. No other way around it. That's the only thing that fits our descriptions." Sirius said.

"I agree with you Sirius. Of all of our options, that's the only one that makes sense. Nothing else fits." James' voice was heard in response.

"So that's the truth then? Of the Big Secret?" Peter asked, slightly surprised and slightly in awe.

Remus could almost hear James nodding. "Yep, Pete. It would seem so. Our friend, Remus, is a werewolf."

Remus dropped his books in surprise, forgetting to be silent. 'They know. I kept it a secret and they still figured it out!?' Was the one thought going through his mind before he was interrupted by the door being opened.

Sirius' scared face came into view before it was replaced with shock, then worry, and then a large, fake smile. Remus would have laughed if it was any other time at the sight of his face.

"Remy! We didn't know you were back so early! Usually you stay close to all night in that cursed library. We weren't expecting you." Was the response he got once Sirius had gotten a hold of himself.

Remus hid his fear as well as he could before walking into the dorm." I could say the same to you three. Usually when you guys go to the kitchens, you stay until the wee hours of the morning. Almost like you didn't even go at all." Was all he could say calmly.

"Well, you see, mate. We didn't exactly go there so to speak." James replied in a hesitant tone.

'He sounds afraid. Probably afraid of being in the same room with me, a werewolf.' Remus thought spitefully, anger starting to form. 'I didn't kill anyone! Why would I start now?'

"I heard the last bit of you lots' discussion." He suddenly said without realizing he was saying it at first.

All three of his friends seemed to freeze at once. Looking like he was going to faint, Peter asked Remus the question he had been dreading ever since he had entered the room.

"Is it true Remus? Are you really a….well….you know?" Remus gulped. He wasn't sure what would happen when he told them the answer, but thought that they deserved to know.

'They took the time to figure it out and got this far, they should at least know the truth.' Internally, Remus was kind of flattered that they had gone through so much just to figure out something about him-the weird misfit bookworm. It showed that they cared. Or had cared at least.

Looking all three of his friends in the eyes, he gave them his fateful answer. "Yes. It is true. I am a werewolf. I have been since I was eight. Fenrir Greyback was the one who bit me because my father wouldn't do as he told him to."

All four of the boys were silent for what seemed like hours. Until Remus finally spoke again, this time with a slight shake in his voice.

"I'll go talk to Prof. McGonagall and tell her to move me to a separate dorm. That way you won't have to be near me anymore than necessary. All that I ask is that you don't tell anyone else. If you do, I'll be expelled."

With that he turned around to face the door and had it partially opened when he heard Sirius ask him the one question that confused him more than any Transfiguration problem ever had.

"Why would we do that? And we don't _want_ you to change dorms. Why would we?"

Remus froze. 'What does he mean by that?' He thought before voicing that thought out loud.

"What do you mean by that? I'm a werewolf, not a human. Why would _you _want to be in a dorm with me? And of course you would! Don't you want me out of here so that you don't have to go to school with a werewolf?!" His tone was that of disbelief and a hint of anger.

"Because you're our friend, mate. And we keep our friends' secrets. You are to a human, Remus. You just have a, a, a furry little problem!" Was James' earnest answer.

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose- a habit he had developed two years ago- and turned around to face the three boys.

"Does turning into a rabid, bloodthirsty animal once a month constitute as human? I think not, James! According to the Ministry, the only reason I'm here is due to the fact that Dumbledore has such a high amount of popularity and influence! The Minister _himself _told me that! If they had their way, I would have been euthanized or 'put out of my misery' as he called it, when I was bitten! At the age of eight!"

He was losing control of himself now, emotions brewing throughout him. Most of which was embarrassment and anger. Shaking and breathing hard, Remus stood there, waiting for them to digest the information he had just told them.

The first to recover was, unsurprisingly, Sirius. "So what? It doesn't matter to us what the bloody hell the Minister or the whole lot of them think! As long as you got here and are alive, that's what matters to us. So if you would stop having your little pity party now, we could get on with our lives and help you out! And yes, we _are_ staying your friends. No matter what kind of bull you pull, or what anyone-including yourself- say, we are your friends" This was all said rather loudly, yet not quite at yelling volume.

James was the next one to speak. "Yeah, Siri pretty much said it all right there. We don't care what the Ministry calls you or what you turn into on the Full Moon. All we care about is the fact that, for the three weeks you are yourself, you are Remus. Our sarcastic friend whom follows the rules too much to have any fun unless we make him" James, thankfully, said this at a much lower volume. Yet you could tell that he meant it all the same.

Lastly, Peter spoke up. "You're still the same old Remus to us. No matter what kind of problems you have, we're still your friends, mate." As always, Peter said very little, yet everything was understood anyway.

Remus just stood there. Mouth agape and arms at his sides, hanging loosely.

"You guys are sure? I mean, I can understand if you don't wanna be around me and all. I'm quite used to it." Was all that he could say.

'I have to be absolutely sure before I believe in them completely.' Was all that he had the chance to think before he got a unanimous answer from all three of them.

"Well, no shit Sherlock! Of course we are sure!" Was Sirius' answer. As always, inserting a swear word anywhere he could fit one.

"Why of course! A Potter would never go against his own word!" Was James' reply. Self-assured as always.

Lastly, came Peters' short, but sweet assurance.

"You bet, mate!"

Remus couldn't help himself. He smiled. "Well, if you're sure, then I guess I can stay."

Just like a overly large puppy, Sirius yelled. "Yay! Remus is staying with us!" and glomped Remus the hardest he ever had.

Remus just laughed and struggled to keep standing while holding the others' 135lbs. The other two just laughed at the sight, making Remus laugh with them.

When the laughter subsided and Sirius finally let go of Remus, the foursome decided to call it a night. For it was 2:00am on a Wednesday.

They got ready with the usual male banter, all as though no huge secret had been revealed.

Remus liked it that way, he decided as he said goodnight and turned the lamp off near his bed. 'Well, I was right earlier.' He thought, drifting into sleep. 'I am very lucky. Very lucky indeed.'

As his thoughts drifted away, he fell into the best sleep he had had in years. This time sure of where he belonged: With his friends at Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

4


End file.
